Carbon fiber (CF) is a material that includes fibers composed mostly of carbon atoms and having a diameter from about 5 μm to about 10 μm. The properties of carbon fibers, such as high stiffness, high tensile strength, low weight, high chemical resistance, high temperature tolerance and low thermal expansion, make them very popular, for example, in civil, aerospace and mechanical engineering applications, in the manufacture automobiles, and the manufacture of high performance sport gear.
Carbon fibers are usually combined with other materials to form a composite. When combined with a plastic resin and wound or molded it forms carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), an extremely rigid material having a very high strength-to-weight ratio. However, carbon fibers are relatively expensive when compared to glass fibers or plastic fibers. Thus, it is desirable to recycle the carbon fiber from unwanted CFRP prior to disposal. However, current methods for recycling carbon fibers from CFRP are tedious, expensive and most importantly damage the structural integrity of the recycled fiber, often making the recycled carbon fiber unsuitable for reuse.